This invention relates to a device for identifying, for example, the indentity of a person, a specific number such as a bank account number, or for controlling in various connections that a first portion of the identification device belongs to a second portion of the device, as for example in the case of key and lock.
The device according to the invention, thus, can be used for providing an identity card, credit card or corresponding card for automatic cash withdrawal from a bank account with information about the owner, account number, etc. According to the technique heretofore used for applying such information to such documents, the card etc. is provided with a magnitizable strip, to which the information is applied, for example by known technique of tape recording.
The present invention offers great advantages in cases when, as mentioned above, a first part is identified in relation to a second part, as in the case of key and lock. Conventional locks for apartments, doors in general etc. are designed so, that a metallic key with a code in the form of having a substantial profile on one side is identified relative to a latch bolt, which includes a corresponding code in the form of the position of tumblers or the position of pins between two concentric cylinders, as in the case of the well-known safety lock. It was found, however, that these types of locks relatively simply can be forced open by a person, for example, who tries to unduely enter a locked room. This has resulted in the development of locks more difficult to force open, for example by increasing the number of tumblers in the locks.
There exist also electric combination locks which, however, show the disadvantage that the combination must be memorized unaccessible to all except those having admittance to the room in question. In most cases, moreover, a spread of the knowledge of the combination cannot be prevented.